Nancy Drew and The Return of the Ripper
by WaterbenderJ
Summary: Nancy Drew is called in to Whitechaple London to investigates two murders, along the way she meets a pair of clashing twins who live in their mothers hotel. The crimescene for several of the murders and a ruined prom.
1. Chapter 1

I said to my over worried father, Carson Drew, on the other end of the line. "I've got to go now. Bye, Dad."

He sighed in content, giving me one last 'be safe and I love you' and hung up. I slipped the cell phone into my purse and the cabbie pulled up to a beautifully old brick building on the corner of a long line of similar structures. On the front of the hotel above the door, the old and slightly faded words "Whitechapel Inn" were written in large delicate brownish red lettering.

The cab driver opened the door as I gazed out the window and held my bags out to me. I slipped out of the car, hearing my heels click against the cobblestone road and took my father's old worn leather briefcase from the man and gave him a bright smile. He shut the door behind me, tipped his cap gave me a rough "good day, miss." Got back into the automobile and drove off down the road.

I looked around, wondering how a murder, or two actually, could have taken place in such a quaint little place. The atmosphere around the building was not that of a crime scene, but that of a normal, generations old family hotel. The front door had most likely been renovated recently because a revolving door stood in the middle, not moving. And as I made my way towards the door, it began to spin. Quickly. And before my mind could fully understand what was happening a person with short brown hair standing on a green skateboard came barreling out of the revolving doors and towards me.

"W-WH-OA!" They shouted, ditching off their skateboard and landing on the sidewalk with a slight groan. The skateboard, with the words "UK 5EVER" scrawled across it rolled slowly passed me and onto the street.

"Are you alright?" were the first words out of my mouth as I bent over next to the person. They sat up and brushed their dark brown bangs out of their face. Looking up at me, I noticed it was a boy, probably 16, with a bandage across his cheek.

"I'm swell. I didn't hit you, did I—" But was cut off by a girl coming through the door next to the spinning one.

"You git! You nearly hit someone!"

"But it's not like I did!" he yelled back, popping back up from the ground. I stood up as well next to them. They battled like brother and sister. The boy that almost ran into me was a few inches taller than the girl who had long light brown hair and large glasses propped on her nose.

Before the argument could get any more heated I interjected "Hello... I'm Nancy Drew. I'm here about the double murder?" I wasn't sure if the two could actually give me any information, but they had come barreling out of the building in which the bodies had supposedly been discovered.

"Oh yeah, you're that detective girl from America. We've been waiting for you."

"Some of us have been waiting for you, while some of us have been attempting to get themselves killed before you showed up."

The boy rolled his eyes and proceeded to pick up my briefcase that I had set down when he had landed on the side walk.

"Come with us," he said. "We'll show you to our mum. She owns the place."

With that, the girl stepped to the normal door and held it open. The boy walked in muttering "kill joy" under his breath. I followed him in the girl entered last.

Inside, the hotel was just as it was outside; elegant and aged. The floors were laid with old rugs that had beautiful hand stitched designs in arrangement of colours. The few windows in the lobby would have let in beautiful streaks out light if it hadn't been evening outside.

That's when I noticed, in the direction we were heading, an older lady, in her late forties with dark worried circles under her eyes. If her hair hadn't been greying it probably would have been the same colour as the girl's.

"Hello," she greeted. "Miss Drew I hope? I've been waiting for someone to come and help ever since the police couldn't find anything."

I smiled. "You can call me Nancy."

"I'm Hazel Turner," the woman said with a smile. "Those are my two daughters."

"Daughters?" I asked, glancing at the one with the short hair. The boy seemed to have an offended look on his face as he glared at me, muttering, "My name is Antonia, you insulted my gender identification. Prepare to die."

"Stop making bad Princess Bride references," the girl said, hitting her sister upside the head. "My name is MerriAnne Bennett, but you can call me Merri. And the idiot here who makes awful references and who ran you over with her stupid skateboard is my twin sister, Toni. Feel free to slap her as much as you like."

"I'll pass," I said with a slight smile. "So you two are twins?"

"Yeah, but we don't look alike," Toni said, shoving her pale hands into the pockets of her baggy jeans.

"She means we're fraternal twins," Merri explained, making Toni puff up her cheeks in anger, yelling, "Stop making me sound stupid!"

"Hey, you do that to yourself," Merri said with a shrug.

Hazel, by then, had had enough and shouted over their arguing, "Girls, girls, stop arguing! We have a guest!"

"Yes ma'am," the twins replied together. The mother continued, "Don't you two have to help Barnaby with the prom preparations for tonight anyway?"

"Oh my gosh, yes!" Toni and Merri squealed. The two girls seemed overly excited, but I remembered that I was when I had my first prom, too.

Hazel said, "I'm going to make the room up. Why don't you look around the rest of the hotel, Nancy? Meet some of the staff and such."

"By the staff, she means Barnaby and Joshua," Merri said plainly.

"Girls, take her down to the police station, too. She can get all the current evidence there from Officer Anderson," Hazel said.

"But he's so boring and he doesn't like me," said Toni, sticking her tongue out and rolling her brown eyes in obvious hatred of the police officer.

Merri swiftly added, "No one likes you."

"Hey, that was cold!" Toni said, reaching out and pulling on Merri's long, brown hair roughly. Merri yelped loudly, detached her sister's hands from her hair and gestured towards a small, rickety elevator, saying, "Joshua is in the basement. Come with us, Nancy."

"But be warned," added Toni. "He can be a might bit peculiar."

"But he's nice," Merri said. "And he likes cats."

Toni took my hand pleasantly, forgetting all about my little gender slip up and skipped along while Merri pulled open the elevator door with a clang. Merri pressed a button marked "B" and the old metal box began to descend. When it finally stopped, Toni opened the door and stuck her head out of the opening, yelling, "Joshua! We brought a pretty lady!"

Before an answer could be heard, a loud crashing of metal and boxes came from a room on the left of the hall that the elevator had opened up to. Merri rolled her eyes and shoved her sister out of the elevator, apologizing to me for her sister's behavior. I followed Merri out and took a look around at my surroundings. The basement was dark, with one measly little light coming from the room I assumed Joshua was in.

A tall man in coveralls walked out of the room. His face was covered in oil and the name "Joshua" was just barely visible on his chest above a small patch shaped like a cat's head.

"Oi, you must be Miss Drew. Sorry about my appearance… Someone scared me and I fell into the machine I was fixin'." He shot a small glare at Toni, who held her hands up in defense.

"Was that particular machine your mechanical cat?" Merri asked.

"Maybe," said Joshua, looking guilty. Merri rolled her eyes, and I took the time to say, "Uh, my name is Nancy. So, Joshua, you work at the hotel?"

"Ever since it opened, ma'am," he said with a polite, toothy smile. Then he turned back to the twins, saying, "Now shouldn't you two be getting ready for that shindig? Doesn't it start soon or something?"

Toni made a choking sound. "Oh, bullocks! I told Barnaby we'd help him set up the ballroom before everyone got here!"

Merri glared at her twin. "Why in God's name would you tell him we'd do that? We still have to get ourselves ready, don't we?"

"Sorry, Nancy! You'll have to ask Joshua his questions later," Toni said, yanking me into the elevator. "Later, Joshua! Talk to you later!"

"Bye, girls. Don't break anything!"

And with that, we ascended up to the main floor.

Toni left to go grab her skateboard off the street while Merri explained to me where everything in the hotel was. Luckily, there was free wireless internet, so I would be able to get onto my laptop. The ballroom was right across from the front desk in the lobby, and slightly to the left next to the front desk was the door to the basement, where all the cleaning supplies and big machines were. If you took another set of stairs on the other side of the basement, you would reach the kitchen. However, most things you would think would be in the kitchen are in the basement, like the three giant freezers.

Merri and I ended up searching for Barnaby, who was a boy their age from their school who got a job at the hotel. Merri told me it was because he actually has a crush on Antonia, which, I have to admit, was a little amusing to me.

We found Barnaby in the kitchen, sitting on the floor trying to open a jar of Nutella. He was tall and weedy, with mousy brown hair and a thin, tan face. He was an attractive male for his age, though his figure made him look a little sickly, and he didn't seem to look very friendly. Barnaby actually looked more intimidating than anything.

"Hey, Barnaby," Merri said, walking up to him.

"What're you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm trying to open a jar," Barnaby said. "I was going to make some toast and put this stuff on it. If only I can get it open!"

I tried to suggest a possible solution to his problem. "Toni can open it, Bar-"

"No!" Barnaby cut her off. "I can do this without Toni's help."

Merri shrugged her shoulders. "We need you to start moving tables into the ballroom. Think you can handle that?"

"After lunch," Barnaby said, concentrating on his jar of hazelnut-chocolate spread.

"No, do it now," Merri said with a "no nonsense" attitude. "I'll make you toast with your Nutella stuff as soon as you're finished."

"Fine, whatever," Barnaby said, getting up. He dusted off his khaki slacks and the green polo he wore, and then headed down to the basement. Merri and I took another route, opting to go through a hallway that was almost like a secret passage, since the door blended into the wall. It was a way for the room service to get out with the carts quicker than having to go through the basement.

Barnaby had managed to reach the ballroom before us, and how we knew was a shrill scream coming from the area.

Merri immediately dashed for the ballroom, no regard for anything else. She managed to jump over a couch and had to dodge a random maid who had a pile of laundry almost as big as her in her arms. "Barnaby, what's wrong…? Oh my GOD."

"What is it?" I asked, following her into the ballroom, where on the floor laid another body. My jaw dropped as a gasp escaped my lips. "Another body?"

"L-looks like it!" Barnaby managed to stutter out.

"WATCH OUT, DUDES," came the battle cry of Toni, who skateboarded in and stopped next to her sister. "Woah! What happened, bro? Barnaby! What did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything, Toni!"

Toni looked pretty mad. "Really? Look at this!" She skateboarded over to where all the tables were and gestured to the one that was lying on the floor. "You can't just leave tables on the floor, Barnaby! Either put them up against the wall or set them up like you were supposed to."

"Toni… You realize there's a dead body right there, don't you?" I asked slowly.

Toni looked over and said nonchalantly, "Oh, so there is. Cool."

"That's not cool, Toni!" Barnaby and Merri yelled at the same time. Toni shrugged and muttered, "Well, I think it is."

"And you wonder why people call you weird," Merri said, hitting her sister upside the head again. Toni shrugged her sister off and skateboarded over to the body.

"Don't touch it, you bloody git," Merri scolded.

"Merri, come look at who it is," Toni said, her eyes widening. "And come check out what's on her arm, bro."

"Her arm?" I questioned as Merri, Barnaby and I stepped up to the body. Merri gasped, "Miss Alisa!"

"Miss Alisa?" I asked. Barnaby whispered, "Their step-mother."

"That's not the worst of it," Toni said, kneeling down and picking up the body's arm. "Look who did it."

Into the flesh of Alisa's forearm was carved "Ripper". I questioned, "Ripper?"

"Jack the Ripper," Merri said. "Do you know anything about him?"

"I know he killed people here in Whitechapel, but I don't see what that has to do with anything now, you know," I said, "Unless the person who is causing these murders happens to be claiming to be the Ripper."

"I think it's the ghost of Jack," Toni said with a slight evil grin. Merri elbowed her sister in the stomach.

"You know why I have so many injuries? Because you keep hitting me!" Toni yelled at her sister.

"If you weren't so stupid, I wouldn't hit you," Merri retorted. "Ghosts don't exist."

"This is someone using the name Jack the Ripper as a cover," I said.

Merri said, "You don't seem to know that much about Jack the Ripper, you know?"

"Officer Anderson can tell her more," Toni said. "No one wants to hear one of your boring lectures anyway. Maybe you're the Ripper, Merri! You kill people by boring them to death just by talking!"

"Or maybe you run them all over with your stupid skateboard!"

"MerriAnne, Antonia," Barnaby interrupted. "Girls, you're both pretty; stop fighting. I'll watch the door and make sure no one comes in. Merri, call the school and tell them to move prom, because we just had another murder. Toni, take Nancy to the police station and come back with one of the officers to investigate."

"Hold on," Toni said. "Nancy?"

"Yes?" I asked.

"I want to help with this case," Toni said. "It ruined the best night of my life. I need to help with this. Let me, please!"

"Me too," Merri said. "I can help with putting it all together, and Toni knows all the back roads and secrets of this area. We can be really useful!"

I thought a moment. The twins had a point, and I could use the help. I finally said, "Fine, but Barnaby can't help. Since you were the first person who saw this murder, you're a suspect."

"Why?" asked Toni, jumping to Barnaby's defense.

"Because he could have killed her and then made himself look innocent," I said. "I don't think you would, Barnaby, but I can't rule you out as a suspect."

He nodded. "I understand. You guys better get going. See you when you get back, Toni."

"Bye, Barnaby," Toni said with a tiny wave before grabbing my wrist. "I ain't waiting up for any American Yankees, so you better know how to shred."

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked, confused. She dragged me out of the ballroom, her twin close behind us, saying, "She means ride a skateboard. She owns, like, fifty of them."

"Oh," I said. "I can ride a skateboard, I guess."

"Good," Toni said, grabbing one from behind the front desk along with her own. "Let's roll." She threw her board on the tile and skated out through the revolving doors. I ran after her and put the skateboard on the sidewalk before skating after her, asking her to wait up, and I was sure that Merri was back at the hotel, rolling her eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Once at the police station, which was not a long ride when you were skateboarding down the main road, Toni and I entered into a tiny building that was strictly black, white and blue. The walls were a deep navy while the floor was made of a shiny, white tile that appeared to sparkle despite having glitter in it. The counters were black except for the tops, which were just as white as the floor.

As we walked across the perfectly white floors over to the desk, Antonia started looking down, to the side, up, at me, just not ahead of her, like the station made her nervous. She grimaced as we reached the counter. A man was behind it, going through a filing cabinet with his back turned to us, I couldn't even make out his hair color let alone his age because of his hat.

Antonia leaded over the counter. "ANDERSON!" She yelled. The man at the filing cabinet stiffened up, recognizing the voice and turned around with a strict look. The man was old, at least in his late fifties maybe even early sixties. He had a small birth mark under his lip on his pudgy white skin. He also sported a scruffy thick grey moustache.

"Antonia Bennett," he muttered. "Keeping out of trouble? Probably not."

"You should know better, Anderson," Toni said with a cocky grin. I noticed that this was an attitude change in Toni that didn't seem to be evident before.

The man just rolled his eyes. "Looks like you made yourself a friend. Congratulations."

"Cut the talk, let's tango," Toni said. "This is Nancy Drew."

The man seemed to finally notice my presence. "Miss Drew," he said. "Welcome to the United Kingdom."

"Thank you," I said with a smile. "I'm here to see what kind of evidence you have on the recent murders that have been happening around here, and to report a new murder, too."

"A new one?!" His expression was a blend of surprise and horror. "Why didn't you tell me before? Antonia!"

She shrugged. "You're the one who started asking questions first."

"That's not the point," I interrupted before Toni could continue. "If you could send the other officers over to the scene, I'd like to talk to you before I go investigate."

"Right," the officer said. "Antonia, take the officers down the road to the crime scene. I'll be down there as soon as Miss Drew is done asking her questions. Understood, little lady?"

"Yeah, you old git," Toni said. "Hey, loser cops, get your lazy butts out here so you can help us solve this stupid crime!"

"Antonia!" Officer Anderson screamed. She grinned and threw her board down on the ground, skating out of the building through the doors. The officer instructed the others, who had come out like a swarm of bees, to go and follow her and investigate, leaving me alone with the officer and whatever evidence was in this room.

"How may I help you, Miss Drew?"

"You can go ahead and call me Nancy," I started. "I'd like to ask a few questions, if you wouldn't mind, sir."

"Go on ahead," he said. I cleared my throat, trying to compose myself before starting my questions. I had to think of something general to ask first, as most people got a little weird when I started asking huge questions right off the bat. I pulled out my notebook to write notes.

I started, "How long have you been on the Ripper case?"

"Ever since it started," he said. "About three months ago."

"So the first murder was when, exactly?" I questioned. He answered that it was three months ago. I could tell I wasn't going to get any information easily, considering these nonspecific answers to such easy questions.

I asked, "Who were the first two victims?"

"Kathryn James, a woman in her late thirties. Soon after, Rosie Watson was found. Her death was very interesting." He didn't seem to want to expose any new information, but I needed it.

"How did Rosie Watson die?"

He gave me a certain look that was obviously irritation. "She made a phone call to the police that was soon cut off right when we were about to get some information about the recent murder. There was a scream, and then nothing. I have the recording of the call."

"May I see it?"

"No."

"Am I aloud to see any of the evidence you've collected on this case?"

"No."

I stopped a moment, a little baffled. "I'm kind of here to help solve this case, so I need to know what's been going on and see all the evidence."

"We don't need to have a ridiculous American helping us solve the case, Miss Drew."

"Well, alright," I said. I was far from giving up, though. Before I could ask another question, Officer Anderson said, "If that's all you have to ask, I need to get to the crime scene. Tally-ho, Miss Drew."

And he was gone. I took a moment to look around the police station. There wasn't much around, and everything that could be locked, was locked. After I checked the last cabinet, I muttered to myself, "Maybe Toni or Merri can help me with this…"

I exited out and headed out to the crime scene, carrying the skateboard under my arm. I refused to ride the thing unless Toni was with me.

"Show me what you have, Officer Anderson," I said as I entered the scene of the crime.

"Right."

I followed him into the large ballroom for the second time that day. The difference this time was that it was crawling with officers.

Anderson kneeled down next to the body. "Her name is Alisa Whyte. We found some positive ID on her. We're working on getting the medical examiner here so we can determine the time and cause of death."

I bent down and looked over the corpse. She was a white female in what a guessed would be her early forties because of the wrinkles on her face. She had long brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. She wore jeans and a white tank-top with running shoes that led me to believe that she had been out jogging.

"Was she moved in here from the original murder site?"

"Beg pardon?" The officer said, looking towards me.

"Is it possible she was moved here from a different location? This seems like an awfully strange site for a jogger to be murdered."

"How do you make that out?" Anderson questioned, a flame of defiance burning in his eye. I smiled inwardly. Now I could show them what I really knew.

"Simple. Look at her outfit. She was obviously going to do some type of exercise and I bet that if you checked for residue on her skin you would find the chemical compound that makes up sweat."

Anderson grumbled. "We'll leave that for the mortician to decide. Our job is to find out why she was killed, not how."

"But the 'why' and 'how' go hand in hand, Officer." I explained politely. "More often than not, the specifics of a crime open up a new world of understanding of the criminal." Officer Anderson's anger continued to rise.

"A very unconventional stratagem, Miss Drew. I suggest you follow my lead on this case, as I've been doing this for much longer than you imagine."

I bit back the urge to respond and peered closely into the wound. "Can we do a search for ballistics evidence?"

Anderson nodded. "I've got men from the crime lab scrubbing this place down. It won't be long before we come up with a list of people in the vicinity. We might even get lucky and have one of the cameras activated during the crime. Where's that doctor?" Anderson fumed, standing up. "If he's much later I'll fire his sorry rear end."

"No such luck, Mr. Anderson." A tall, attractive British male with short brown hair strode in carrying a large case that shone in the incoming sunlight from the large skylights on the roof. "Harrison Fritz, Medical Examiner." He said, extending his hand to me.

"Nancy Drew. Nice to meet you."

"Always a pleasure to meet such a lovely lady as yourself." He grinned mischievously and gave me a wink.

I smiled back. "Sorry, already taken. I've got a man back in the States."

Harrison sighed with comedic drama. "Oh, what a lucky man he is. Now, I can only assume that this is our body?" Without waiting for an answer, he began examining the body. "Due to the blood pooling internally near the veins of her limbs," he said, lifting one of the victim's arms and pointing to a large purple stain on the underside of her arm. "I can rightly deduce she was here for quite some time."

"Can you give us an approximation?"

"I'd say around twelve hours ago. She was killed sometime last night, seeing as her body is considerably colder than the average healthy human and taking into account the clotting of the wound." he pointed to a medium sized puncture wound above her heart. "She was instantly killed by the puncture to her heart."

"None of that surprises me. Was she killed here or moved?" Anderson asked impatiently, wiping sweat off his forehead with his cap.

"Help me roll her over, Officer."

With much exertion, they pushed the body of Alisa onto her stomach.

"Just as I suspected." Harrison commented with satisfaction, pointing to several long rips on the back of her shirt. "Those, in combination with the lack of blood pooling around her body indicate she was dragged away from the area of her apparent demise. It can't be far away, since she was merely dragged, and not carried."

"How can you tell she wasn't placed in a car then transported here?"

"Then they would have carried her, and not risked dragging her." Anderson seemed to be getting a little annoyed at everyone catching details before he was. He sat silently, his jaw tight in anger. He stood up hastily, excused himself, then started yelling at his technical officers for their speed in gathering evidence. Harrison gave a little chuckle, then directed my attention to the cuts made in the woman's forearm.

"This was done post-mortem, Miss Drew."

"Cut the fancy mortician talk and speak plain English."

"American or Proper?" he teased. "Post mortem means that these cuts were made after our victim died. My guess is that Mrs. Whyte's killer was well aware of the job in front of her, considering the precise location of the stab wound. It was no accident." he said grimly. "This was murder, no doubt about it." I suddenly remembered that I had no idea who this "Jack the Ripper" character was, so I asked Harrison, since he was the closest person to me.

"Harrison," I began. "Who is Jack the Ripper?"

"A serial killer, and what a rotten piece of work he was. He was a serial killer back in the nineteenth century, never identified. He would slit the throats of his victims then remove various organs, leaving the bodies to be found the next day. His total murdered was five, if I remember right."

"So why would a modern day murderer use the persona of Jack as their cover? It's obviously unrealistic."

"Fear, Miss Drew. A murderer draws energy from fear. It's their life force, almost."

I shivered at the thought. "What a horrible mindset."

We both stood, looking at the body in earnest when Officer Anderson called me over. He looked to be in a pleasant mood now."We've retrieved some prints from the crime scene. They may not be the best, mind you, but it's a start."

"What about the cameras?" I asked. "Even though the body was moved, we still could-"

Anderson cut me off. "Out of the question. I had an officer speak with the owner of the building and they said that the cameras were just for show to deter crime. Defeats the purpose of the camera, if you ask me, but that's that. We'll have to go on physical evidence to catch the murderer, and it won't be much, if it's the same one we've been dealing with."

"So where do I come in?" I asked, getting annoyed with my lack of input so far.

"Analysis, Nancy. We'll find the clues, you piece together the puzzle, we catch the murderer. Easy."

I scoffed. "If there's one thing I've learned from all my years as a detective, nothing about catching a criminal is easy."

Anderson nodded. "Yes, I know, but you get the idea. We'll keep the majority of the evidence down at the station for safety's sake, but you can have access to it whenever you need it with permission from me, since I am held responsible for the outcome of the case."

I nodded, turning to leave. "Keep me updated." I started to walk away, but I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I turned to see Officer Anderson clutching my shoulder fiercely. "Watch your back, Nancy." Then, lowering his voice, he added, "And be safe. For all our sakes."


End file.
